Law firms linked to convicted PIs
By Anonymous on Jul 31, 2013 03:32 am 30 July 2013 Last updated at 21:54 ET 
The clients have been identified by type of business but have not been named
Twenty-two law firms commissioned work from four private investigators convicted of illegally obtaining private information, MPs have said.
The Home Affairs Select Committee has published a list of the types of businesses identified as clients of the investigators.
The investigators were given jail sentences last year.
The Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca) has been accused of failing to take legal action against the clients.
Private data The list summarises clients identified by Operation Millipede, the inquiry into the activities of four private investigators.
They specialised in illegally obtaining information from holders of private data such as banks, utility companies and HM Revenue and Customs.
The MPs wanted Soca to name the clients but the agency refused, marking the the list as confidential.
As a result the list published by the committee is a breakdown of the clients by business sector.
Law firms made up the largest proportion, and there were eight financial service companies.
The list suggested that private investigators often subcontract work to each other - 16 clients were other private investigation agencies.
Committee chairman Keith Vaz said: "The committee remains concerned that it holds a list that Soca has classified as secret, even though it is evidence given as part of our inquiry."
But the Labour MP added: "This is an important step forward in establishing the facts."
Computers seized Operation Millipede led to the convictions of Philip Campbell-Smith and Graham Freeman who ran an agency called Brookmans International, and retired Metropolitan Police detective Adam Spears who worked alone.
A fourth defendant, Daniel Summers, was subcontracted by the others to carry out the so-called blagging of private information.
Soca seized computers during raids on the private investigators in 2009.
Evidence from these machines is now being used in another police investigation, Operation Tuleta, which is examining the illegal accessing of private information by the journalist and companies.
Soca has refused to name the clients in the Millipede case because it said that could disrupt the ongoing Tuleta inquiry.
The Metropolitan Police said it would not support the naming of suspects in such circumstances.
Soca also maintained there was no proof the clients acted illegally.
BBC home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds said proving that the clients commissioned work knowing it would breach the data protection act - the most likely charge they might face - could be difficult.
One of the clients, a solicitor, told the BBC she hired Brookmans International to track down a fraudster but insisted she did not break the law.
She said she put in writing her request to the private detectives that they do not do anything illegal.
Vital work Much of the work of private investigators involves finding out where fraudsters have hidden stolen money or tracking down people who owe money so that civil litigation can begin.
Another law firm which uses private investigators said such work was vital because often police will not go after fraudsters.
The client list published by the committee does not appear to contain any media companies.
Our correspondent said critics of Soca argued it had failed to act on the corporate use of private investigators, while journalists who allegedly obtained private information by the breaking the law were subjected to several major police investigations.
The Millipede case is not one of the five detailed in a widely leaked report compiled by Soca in 2008 which warned of the risk of rogue private investigators.
The report was an analysis of cases that all reached their conclusion before it was written.
Meanwhile, Home Secretary Theresa May is shortly expected to announce proposals that will require private detectives to have a licence to operate, barring anyone found guilty of hacking or blagging - obtaining information by using a false identity.
The Met Police said it supported the "strong regulation of the private investigation industry and a system that allows for a client to perform due diligence checks on the individual or company they wish to hire".
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Assange condemns Manning verdicts
By Anonymous on Jul 31, 2013 12:34 am 31 July 2013 Last updated at 00:34 ET 
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Julian Assange: "He is the quintessential whistleblower"
Julian Assange, founder of the anti-secrecy organisation Wikileaks, has said the conviction of US Army Private Bradley Manning on spying charges is a "dangerous precedent".
Pte Manning, 25, had admitted leaking thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks but said he did so to spark a debate on US foreign policy.
The leak is considered the largest ever of secret US government files.
He faces a maximum sentence of up to 136 years.
Pte Manning was convicted on Tuesday of 20 charges in total, including theft and computer fraud but was found not guilty on the most serious charge of aiding the enemy.
In addition to multiple espionage counts, he was also found guilty of five theft charges, two computer fraud charges and multiple military infractions.
His sentencing hearing is set to begin on Wednesday. It may be a lengthy process, as both the defence and the prosecution are allowed to call witnesses.
Many will hope the court does make an example of Pte Manning to discourage others from making secrets public, the BBC's North America Editor Mark Mardell reports from Washington.
Continue reading the main story The significance of the verdicts
The judge's ruling avoids the establishment of a precedent that could have applied to ongoing leak cases, including the Edward Snowden saga.
The gist of the prosecution's argument in the Manning case is that in today's interconnected world, any leak of classified information will end up on the Internet and available to America's enemies.
Such a finding could have had a chilling effect on the ability of journalists to report on the activities of government and the willingness of officials to be candid in describing the complex decisions and tradeoffs that governments confront every day.
Finding the right balance among security, secrecy, transparency and privacy remains a work in progress.
PJ Crowley, former assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration
Mr Assange said the verdicts represented "dangerous national security extremism".
Speaking from the Ecuadorean embassy in London, Mr Assange said: "This has never been a fair trial.
"Bradley Manning isn't guilty of anything in that he's actually very heroic for demanding government transparency and accountability and exposing the American people and the rest of the world to the crimes committed by the American government," he said.
Mr Assange said the only victim in the case had been the US government's "wounded pride".
He said that there were two appeals within the US justice system as well as the Supreme Court. "WikiLeaks will not rest until he is free," Mr Assange said.
Graphic footage Pte Manning appeared not to react as Judge Colonel Denise Lind read out the verdict on Tuesday, but his defence lawyer, David Coombs, smiled faintly as the not guilty charge on aiding the enemy was read.
"We won the battle, now we need to go win the war," Mr Coombs said of the sentencing phase. "Today is a good day, but Bradley is by no means out of the fire."
Continue reading the main story The verdicts
Guilty: Seven out of eight espionage charges, five theft charges, two computer fraud charges, five military counts of violating a lawful general regulation, one of wanton publication of intelligence on the internet
Not guilty: Aiding the enemy, unauthorised possession of information relating to national defence
During the court martial, prosecutors said Pte Manning systematically harvested hundreds of thousands of classified documents in order to gain notoriety.
With his training as an intelligence analyst, Pte Manning should have known the leaked documents would become available to al-Qaeda operatives, they argued.
The defence characterised him as a naive and young soldier who had become disillusioned during his time in Iraq.
His actions, Mr Coombs argued, were those of a whistle-blower.
In a lengthy statement during a pre-trial hearing in February, Pte Manning said he had leaked the files in order to spark a public debate about US foreign policy and the military.
Much of the court martial was spent considering the soldier's intentions as he leaked the documents.
Amnesty International said in a statement the "the government's pursuit of the 'aiding the enemy' charge was a serious overreach of the law, not least because there was no credible evidence of Manning's intent to harm the USA by releasing classified information to WikiLeaks."
But the Democratic and Republican leaders of the US House of Representatives intelligence committee said "justice has been served", in a joint statement after the ruling.
Among the items sent to Wikileaks by Pte Manning was graphic footage of an Apache helicopter attack in 2007 that killed a dozen people in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, including a Reuters photographer.
The documents also included 470,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports and 250,000 secure state department cables between Washington and embassies around the world.
Pte Manning, an intelligence analyst, was arrested in Iraq in May 2010. He spent weeks in a cell at Camp Arifjan, a US Army installation in Kuwait, before being transferred to the US.
Read in browser » Sex offence suspects' DNA 'deleted'
By Anonymous on Jul 30, 2013 07:00 pm 30 July 2013 Last updated at 19:00 ET 
Police will be required to delete most of the DNA profiles of people who have not been charged
Thousands of DNA profiles of suspected sex offenders are being deleted from the national database because of Home Office incompetence, Labour claims.
A ban on police in England and Wales holding indefinitely the DNA of people not charged takes effect in October.
The Home Office has ordered forces to delete such records ahead of the change, even though an appeals system is not in place, Labour says.
These records include DNA of 18,000 people held but not charged with rape.
However, the government said it is "restoring common sense to the system".
A Home Office spokesperson said: "In the past, DNA was kept from innocent people, but not taken from prisoners. We are taking samples from the guilty and getting rid of them when people have done nothing wrong."
Biometrics commissioner Although police will be required to delete most profiles from people who are not charged under the new law, chiefs will be able to ask the biometrics commissioner for permission to hold a sample for three years where the individual is suspected of a serious offence, such as rape, and officers have grounds to do so.
The changes to the National DNA Database came in 2012's Protection of Freedoms Bill, following a major defeat for the police at the European Court of Human Rights.
That 2008 judgement said England and Wales should mirror the Scottish system under which DNA profiles taken from people who are never charged with an offence should be destroyed.
Previous to this judgement, Police in England and Wales could previously hold profiles indefinitely.
Continue reading the main story KEY LIMITS ON RETAINING DNA PROFILES
- Adult offender: Indefinite
- Under-18 serious offender: Indefinite
- Under-18 minor offence: Five years
- Arrested and charged with serious offence: Three to five years
- Arrested on serious charge but released: Three years on appeal to commissioner; indefinite if previously convicted
The process is designed to allow detectives to hold on to the records of individuals they strongly suspect of serious offences which can be difficult to bring to court, such as rape.
But that appeal process is not yet in place - and Labour says forces are following a Home Office order to delete records in preparation for the legal changeover.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Home Office was guilty of "shocking incompetence" .
Ms Cooper said: "It is appalling that DNA evidence from thousands of rape suspects is now being destroyed contrary to the promises made by the prime minister and home secretary.
"The prime minister assured Parliament that if someone was arrested but not charged with rape, the police would be able to ask to retain the DNA of the suspect. Yet because of Theresa May's incompetence the police are powerless to retain it."
As of May, 1.1 million DNA profiles had been destroyed under the programme to remove innocent people from the database.
The biometrics commissioner, Alastair MacGregor QC, recently said police could hypothetically ask him for permission to retain 60,000 DNA records a year relating to serious crimes, each of which could involve a legal battle.
It is not clear whether all forces are completely following the order or whether some are trying to hold on to profiles ahead of a later appeal.
A Home Office spokesperson added: "Forces will be able to retain DNA from someone arrested and not charged for up to three years, but only with permission from the Biometrics Commissioner. And all DNA samples taken by police are checked against the national database before deletion."
Read in browser » Profits rise at British Gas owner
By Anonymous on Jul 31, 2013 03:30 am 31 July 2013 Last updated at 02:12 ET 
British Gas owner Centrica has reported a rise in half-year profits, after the unusually cold winter boosted gas consumption.
Centrica's adjusted operating profit rose 9% to £1.58bn for the period ended 30 June 2013, up from £1.45bn for the same period in 2012.
British Gas' residential arm saw profits rise 3% to £356m, up from £345m a year earlier.
British Gas raised its energy prices by 6% in November 2012.
Read in browser » Third 'SAS' training soldier dies
By Anonymous on Jul 31, 2013 02:17 am 30 July 2013 Last updated at 16:57 ET 
Army reservists Edward Maher, 31, and Craig Roberts, 24, died on 13 July
A third Army reservist has died after taking part in an SAS selection training exercise in the Brecon Beacons earlier this month.
Edward Maher, 31, and Craig Roberts, 24, died after temperatures reached 29.5C during the training regime on 13 July.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on Tuesday a third reservist has died.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has announced a full inquiry into what happened.
In a statement on Tuesday, the MoD said: "It is with great sadness that we can confirm that a third army reserve soldier injured during a training exercise in the Brecon Beacons has died of his injuries.
"The family have asked for a period of grace before he is named and request that this is respected by the media."
The soldiers had taken part in a four-week trial for the Territorial Army's SAS reservists ending in a 40-mile (64km) hike over the Brecon Beacons.
An inquest in Brecon, which opened and adjourned last week, heard the cause of Mr Roberts' and Mr Maher's deaths remains "unascertained".
L/Cpl Roberts, 24, of Penrhyn Bay, Conwy, had served with the Territorial Army for around five years and is understood to have served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The soldiers were among six men rescued from a mountain during the hike.
Read in browser » Stafford Hospital's future revealed
By Anonymous on Jul 31, 2013 12:06 am 31 July 2013 Last updated at 00:06 ET 
A public inquiry was triggered at Stafford Hospital after a higher than expected number of deaths at the trust
A report by administrators running the scandal-hit Stafford Hospital into the future of services there will be published later.
The Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust went into administration on 16 April after a report concluded it was not "clinically or financially sustainable".
A public inquiry, led by Robert Francis QC, was triggered by a higher than expected number of deaths at the trust.
The Trust Special Administrators' (TSA) report will be published at 14:00 BST.
The administrators were initially given 45 days to design new patient services, but health regulator Monitor granted them an extra 30 days.
The consultation on the draft report will start on 6 August and end on 1 October.
'Fragile offering' Conservative-controlled Staffordshire County Council, which took on the public health remit in April, said a single trust should be created to provide health and social care for Staffordshire.
Campaigners demonstrated in April to keep major health services at the hospital
Council leader Philip Atkins said: "Instead of looking to break up an already fragile offering we need to look at creating a stronger, single Staffordshire NHS Trust offering integrated health and social care as a basis for a sustainable NHS."
The Mid Staffordshire trust, which also runs Cannock Chase Hospital, was the first NHS foundation trust to be put into administration.
Mr Francis's inquiry, into one of the biggest scandals in the history of the NHS, looked at why the problems at Stafford Hospital, where hundreds of needless deaths were caused by abuse and neglect in 2005-08, was not picked up earlier.
The report concluded patients had been "betrayed" because the NHS put corporate self-interest ahead of patients.
It argued for "fundamental change" in the culture of the NHS to make sure patients were put first.
Continue reading the main story "Practically ignored by nurses"
Find out more about the victims of the Stafford Hospital scandal
The inquiry ran for a year between 2010 and 2011, and took evidence from more than 160 witnesses over 139 days, at a cost of £13m.
The findings of the Francis Report prompted a separate review of 14 NHS hospitals in England with high mortality rates.
As a result of that review, 11 of the hospitals were placed in "special measures" for "fundamental breaches of care".
On Thursday 25 July, two Stafford Hospital nurses who falsified A&E discharge times were struck off the nursing register.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council panel found that Tracey-Ann White and Sharon Turner had brought their profession into serious disrepute.
On Tuesday 23 July, it was announced the director of nursing at the hospital, Colin Ovington, was to leave and become the new chief nurse of Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust.
He was recruited in 2010 to help improve the quality of care at the Mid Staffordshire trust.
Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Sandwell Hospital and City Hospital in Birmingham, has said Mr Ovington was expecting to take up his new post later this year.
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